Port Au Prince

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Singer Wyclef Jean will announce his candidacy for president of earthquake-ravaged Haiti, the former head of the country’s Chamber of Deputies said yesterday. Former deputy Pierre Eric Jean-Jacques said that the hip hop artist will run as part of his coalition in the Nov. 28 election. Jean spokeswoman Cindy Tanenbaum declined to confirm the report but said the singer planned to make an announcement tomorrow night in Haiti. Jean-Jacques, who is seeking to return to the Chamber of Deputies, said he will be a candidate for a new coalition that calls...

Two years ago, in one of the worst natural disasters recorded in the western hemisphere, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake shook the island nation of Haiti, leveling the capital of Port-au-Prince, taking more than a quarter-million lives, and leaving 1.5 million homeless. The wall-to-wall coverage of destruction and death riveted the world community and triggered a massive response, with billions in pledged foreign aid and private donations. But as relief turned to stalled recovery, Mark Schuller, a New York anthropologist who also teaches at University of Haiti in Port-au-Prince, realized he was seeing a...

CARREFOUR, Haiti -- It was on the fourth day that I realized how far I had come. Sweat was trickling down my back. My glasses were slipping down my nose. Clamoring around me, pressing into my personal American space, dozens of Haitian men, women, and children awaited my attention for a brief encounter: to have their age, weight, and heart rate taken and recorded. The simple exchange with me, no health professional, put these rural people one step closer to the day's goal: their turn with the American doctor installed for the week, along with several helpers like me, at their mountainside village.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Days after the earthquake killed their little girl and destroyed much of their house, Meristin Florival and his family pitched a makeshift tent on a hill in the Haitian capital and called it home. Two years later they are still there, living without drains, running water, or electricity. A few miles away, Jean Rony Alexis has left the camp where he spent the months after the quake and moved into a shed-like shelter built on a concrete slab by the Red Cross.

Your plan? A self-sustainable village in Arcahaie, about 20 miles north of Port-au-Prince. Last year, my team and I began designing a place that provides shelter, medical treatment, education, an arts center, farming, job training, a cafeteria, and government offices. With the number of people fleeing Port-au-Prince, shelter is now priority one. Plus, we’re in a race against the rainy season. Our goal is to house 1,000 people after 100 days of building. Why rural Arcahaie?

Two years ago, in one of the worst natural disasters recorded in the western hemisphere, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake shook the island nation of Haiti, leveling the capital of Port-au-Prince, taking more than a quarter-million lives, and leaving 1.5 million homeless. The wall-to-wall coverage of destruction and death riveted the world community and triggered a massive response, with billions in pledged foreign aid and private donations. But as relief turned to stalled recovery, Mark Schuller, a New York anthropologist who also teaches at University of Haiti in Port-au-Prince, realized he was...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- UN forces and Haitian police surrounded a teeming seaside slum yesterday in an offensive aimed at disarming gangs and restoring order ahead of fall elections. Soldiers fired into the air to drive off car hijackers who killed at least one man. UN peacekeepers atop armored vehicles made high-speed sweeps up and down streets on the outskirts of Cite Soleil, occasionally firing weapons into the air. But as of late yesterday, they did not seem to have yet entered the heart of the slum, which is home to armed gangs thought to threaten the elections.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A hurricane season predicted to be one of the wettest on record opens today in the Caribbean, where hundreds of thousands of Haitian earthquake victims have only tarps or fraying tents to protect them in a major storm. The Haitian government says it is still working on emergency and evacuation plans. But since the Jan. 12 earthquake killed up to 300,000 people and left more than 1.5 million homeless, there has been little progress on clearing rubble so people can return to their neighborhoods or build sturdier shelters.

MONTREAL - An effective recovery strategy for Haiti must take into account a sudden rush of thousands of quake survivors from Port-au-Prince into the countryside, where the economy cannot sustain them, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday. Clinton, speaking to reporters during a break in a daylong conference intended to review and improve the delivery of short-term aid as well as chart a course for long-term recovery, said she was encouraged by the analysis of Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive of Haiti.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - A half-million Haitians who fled their shattered capital after the earthquake are starting to return to a maze of rubble piles, refugee camps, and food lines, complicating ambitious plans to build a better Haiti. Haitian and international officials had hoped to use the devastation of Port-au-Prince - a densely packed sprawl of winding roads and ramshackle slums that is home to a third of Haiti’s 9 million people - to build an improved capital and decentralize the country.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The mayor of a large city in the Haitian capital region has begun clearing out camps set up after last year’s earthquake, evicting hundreds of people amid heavy rains and the start of the hurricane season today. Mayor Wilson Jeudy of Delmas city says the settlements — densely packed clusters of wooden shanties and tarps — have become staging areas for robberies, rapes, and other crimes. But panicked residents say they have nowhere else to live or seek shelter.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Nearly nine months after the earthquake, more than a million Haitians still live on the streets between piles of rubble. One reason: Not a cent of the $1.15 billion the United States promised for rebuilding has arrived. The money was pledged by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in March for use this year in rebuilding. The United States has already spent more than $1.1 billion on postquake relief, but without long-term funds the reconstruction of the wrecked capital cannot begin.

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Singer Wyclef Jean will announce his candidacy for president of earthquake-ravaged Haiti, the former head of the country’s Chamber of Deputies said yesterday. Former deputy Pierre Eric Jean-Jacques said that the hip hop artist will run as part of his coalition in the Nov. 28 election. Jean spokeswoman Cindy Tanenbaum declined to confirm the report but said the singer planned to make an announcement tomorrow night in Haiti. Jean-Jacques, who is seeking to return to the Chamber of Deputies, said...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Perhaps it was the wide grin on Charles’s face as he greeted us at Toussaint Louverture International Airport. Or the way Sister Claudette lovingly served my family bread and papaya juice in her damaged compound. Just as probably it was riding in the bed of a pickup truck, watching street life more colorful than any theme park parade. Somehow, my daughter, Lane, 13, and son, Benjamin, 8, were OK — more than OK — vacationing recently in one of the saddest places on earth.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A hurricane season predicted to be one of the wettest on record opens today in the Caribbean, where hundreds of thousands of Haitian earthquake victims have only tarps or fraying tents to protect them in a major storm. The Haitian government says it is still working on emergency and evacuation plans. But since the Jan. 12 earthquake killed up to 300,000 people and left more than 1.5 million homeless, there has been little progress on clearing rubble so people can return to their neighborhoods or build sturdier shelters.

Your plan? A self-sustainable village in Arcahaie, about 20 miles north of Port-au-Prince. Last year, my team and I began designing a place that provides shelter, medical treatment, education, an arts center, farming, job training, a cafeteria, and government offices. With the number of people fleeing Port-au-Prince, shelter is now priority one. Plus, we’re in a race against the rainy season. Our goal is to house 1,000 people after 100 days of building. Why rural Arcahaie?

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- A new rash of kidnappings has raised fears that well-armed, politically aligned street gangs are seeking to destabilize Haiti's new government, threatening UN-led efforts to restore security 2 1/2 years after a crippling revolt. Others say the gangs are simply after cash and see kidnappings as a lucrative source of revenue to buy more arms and to fuel other criminal enterprises in this impoverished country. But most agree on one thing: The problem is getting worse.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- A shootout between police and protesters killed two men and injured seven during a demonstration in support of Jean-Bertrand Aristide yesterday, as the exiled Haitian president planned a return to the Caribbean. The violence erupted as hundreds of protesters marched through the Belair neighborhood of Port-au-Prince yelling, "Aristide has to come back! We don't want Bush as president!" Shots were fired, and some protesters pulled out pistols. Police fired tear gas, and a shootout between protesters and police...

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - A half-million Haitians who fled their shattered capital after the earthquake are starting to return to a maze of rubble piles, refugee camps, and food lines, complicating ambitious plans to build a better Haiti. Haitian and international officials had hoped to use the devastation of Port-au-Prince - a densely packed sprawl of winding roads and ramshackle slums that is home to a third of Haiti’s 9 million people - to build an improved capital and decentralize the country.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - She is amazing her doctors, the 16-year-old choir girl who came close to dying but wouldn’t in the crumbled concrete graveyard of Port-au-Prince. More than two weeks after the earthquake brought down her school - and a day after she was lifted from the ruins - Darlene Etienne was eating yogurt, talking, and regaining her strength yesterday. “We are very surprised at the fact that she is still alive,’’ said Dr. Evelyne Lambert, who is caring for her on a French hospital ship offshore.